On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
Recently, while addressing an election assembly in India, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked that achieving India’s interests is the prime goal of his party. Modi said, “No one respects those who cannot stand up for their nation’s interests”.
Of course, it is true and the Indian leaders are patriotic and stand for achieving their country’s interests.
This scribe wishes to convey this message by Modi to our political leaders, intellectuals, academicians and its friends in media. Not all but most of them are working against the nation’s interests in Nepal. General public, who has better experiences with Indian behavior, opposes the Indian hegemonic attitude but our political leaders, rather than serving the nation’s interests, are working in the interests of India. They give revolutionary speeches but in action, they are found working for India’s interests.
Nepal’s Zone of Peace (ZoP) proposal had a strategic significance and it was a strong pillar for safeguarding Nepali sovereignty and independence. This proposal was also included in the constitution of Nepal and around 118 foreign nations, except India, had recognized it. In the 1990 constitution, this proposal of King Birendra was removed by the revolutionary leaders without giving any clarification. In fact, when India annexed Sikkim, Nepal saw a threat from India and thus, King Birendra asked the international community to recognize Nepal as a Zone of Peace.
At the cost of the Indian sponsorship of the people’s movement in 1989, the leaders decided to remove the ZoP proposal. It was a move to please India by our revolutionary leaders.
India is eying on Nepal’s water as there is a shortage of water in the North-West part of India. India needs water to meet the shortage of drinking water for the people in UP and Bihar states including its capital city Delhi. Furthermore, India needs water to irrigate its land and also to operate ships in the Gangeje River from Allahabad to Haldiya in Calcutta. Thus far, India is occupying one after another river and the Nepali leaders, after coming to the government, are handing over one after another river to India. According to international practice, when India uses water from Nepal, it should pay a royalty to Nepal, but our leaders are unable to talk to the Indian leaders about such royalty.
Local water resources experts opine that Nepal cannot become rich by exporting hydropower to India, rather, India will colonize our water. They argue that Nepal should generate hydropower at a low price and supply it to the local industries so that the industrialization process of the country will take momentum. The fact is that India is consuming Nepali hydropower at the price set by India and that is below the production cost. Our political leaders are aware of this fact but they never become tired of lauding the issue of electricity exports to India as a great achievement.
When India didn’t allow new entry routes for the aircraft bound for Nepal, the Nepal side had to make efforts for the smooth operation of the newly built two international airports in Pokhara and Bhairahawa. India wants to cut down Nepal’s wings directly linking Nepal with the countries in the globe, which is understandable. With the support and cooperation from China and the Gulf countries, Nepal could operate the two new airports smoothly. We don’t know, what our leaders and the Civil Aviation authorities are doing, however, the civil aviation chief in Bhairahawa Airport has submitted ten-point recommendations for the smooth operation of the Bhairahawa airport. India didn’t allow the operation of the Instrumental Landing System (ILS), which has already been installed at the Bhairahawa Airport saying that it also covers the Indian airspace. If India doesn’t allow the operation of the ILS, Pratapbabu Tiwari, Bhairahawa airport chief of the Civil Aviation Authority, has suggested bringing into operation the RNP Approach System based on satellite. To adopt this system, the Nepal government doesn’t need spend additional money, Tiwari has remarked. Besides, shifting manpower offices to Bhairahawa and allowing local labs to provide medical reports are the major tasks that should be done by the government.
Moreover, giving a special discount to aircraft operating flights to Bhairahawa would encourage airlines to operate flights to Bhairahawa and also to Pokhara.
Reports state that one can reach Pokhara from Kathmandu in one hour if podways are brought into operation. Why doesn’t the government think about such a mass transportation system? If one can reach Pokhara and Bhairahawa in one hour, people in Kathmandu can go to Pokhara and Bhairahawa to catch their international flights. The government should not keep the two international airports non-operational.
Our corrupt leaders and bureaucracy are planning to hand over the operation of the three international airports to an Indian company at the cost of constructing the Nijgadh International Airport. From the security point of view, handing over the international airports to the Indian party is seriously objectionable. The other thing is that in view of past experiences, we can say that India will not construct the airport in Nijgadh, which is a game-changing project for Nepal. Let all of us, mostly those political leaders in the government and bureaucrats in the decision-making positions think about the nation’s interests rather than fulfilling their pity interests. Let our people listen to Narendra Modijee, “No one respects those who cannot stand up for their national interests”!
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